The idea behind this tongue-in-cheek campaign for their new Pick 'N Pair lunch is to have workers use an inflatable doll as a replacement for their physical presence. That way, they can totally take time for lunch (at Applebee's, clearly) and no one will notice that they've been replaced by a blow-up doll (aka "lunch decoy" in Applebee's-speak). Genius, right?

First Place: Buffalo Wings, Potato Skins, French Fries, Onion Rings, Chicken Strips
Recommended: Nachos, Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach Dip
Chili's pretty much killed it -- every single item we tried was either recommended or was the winner (five out of eight!) in its category. Everything was made as it should be, and that's really what separated the winners from the losers. While nothing at Chili's was extraordinary, none of the dishes were cooked poorly, or weren't tasty. The food at Chili's tasted as you expected. It was indulgent without being greasy, fried without being overkill.

First Place: Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach Dip
Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Nachos, Chicken Strips
Last Place: French Fries, Onion Rings
When we discussed with colleagues the chains we were visiting, everyone assumed that The Cheesecake Factory would trump the competition by far. People typically seem to love the wide-ranging menu and massive portions. While the food at Cheesecake Factory was definitely better than most (spinach dip with actual spinach, mozzarella sticks with quality cheese ), the french fries and onion rings were the worst we sampled. But there's plenty more to choose from.

Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Potato Skins, French Fries, Chicken Strips
Not Recommended: Nachos, Onion Rings
Hard Rock Cafe was generally solid. Unlike Cheesecake Factory, nothing was especially gross. But overall, Cheesecake Factory still gets the edge because it had some especially good dishes, whereas Hard Rock just had some solid ones. The nachos were the most disappointing -- to use an extremely technical term, we found them quite "blah."

First Place: Nachos
Recommended: Chicken Strips
Not Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Potato Skins, French Fries
Last Place: Mozzarella Sticks, Spinach Dip
T.G.I. Friday's was full of huge inconsistencies. Their nachos appetizer was not only the winner of that category, but also one of the best dishes across all categories. We loved them. That can't be said for most of the other items though. Except for the chicken strips, everything was pretty awful. The mozzarella sticks were horrible on account of both the breading and the cheese. The chips for the spinach dip were soapy. Stick to the nachos and steer clear of mostly everything else.

Recommended: Nachos, Onion Rings
Not Recommended: Buffalo Wings, Mozzarella Sticks, French Fries, Spinach Dip, Chicken Strips
Red Lobster had no winners but a lot of losers. With the exception of the excellent onion rings and the tasty nachos, we'd avoid everything else. The spinach dip sticks out in our minds as particularly egregious -- it was separated and very oily.
They should get bonus points for their cheesy biscuits though -- those are good.

Recommended: Buffalo Wings, French Fries
Not Recommended: Spinach Dip
Last Place: Potato Skins, Chicken Strips
Planet Hollywood doesn't quite get last place thanks to a few dishes that weren't too horrible. But it was by far our worst dining experience because when the dishes were bad, they were REALLY bad. We never want to see those chicken strips again. And when you're calling something potato skins but they appear in large chunks, it doesn't really count.

Recommended: Spinach Dip
Not Recommended: French Fries, Onion Rings, Chicken Strips
Last Place: Buffalo Wings
Poor Ruby Tuesday. You didn't really have that much going for you, though we wish your salad bar could count for something. While most of the dishes weren't outright disgusting, they just weren't very good either. Your spinach dip was a saving grace, which was...decent enough.